Yeah we did that in 7th grade too. Anti tank weapons do the job with the blocks but quite rare risk in western world

Audi also makes intakes, valve covers and gearboxes out of magnesium.

 

Probably the most notorious recipient of GM's aluminum speed parts was Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars as OP mentioned. After an early partnership with Carroll Shelby(!) he developed a relationship with Chevrolet engineering in the early 1960's because he had his own test facility ("Rattlesnake Raceway") in Midland, TX that was equipped with a dyno room and racetrack/ skidpad that was instrumented with photocells...since GM had (somewhat reluctantly) signed onto the AMA agreement not to race this facility gave them a semi-secret venue to test new ideas away from prying eyes, among which were their clutchless two- and three-speed automatic transaxles, various composite structure technologies, and yes, aluminum and magnesium engine parts. Hall was the first to get aluminum engines for sports car racing (327's)- these were used in his Chaparral 2C's and 2E's and then in 1967 he was the first to get aluminum big blocks (427's), which were used in the 2G Can-Am car and 2F endurance racer. By 1970 all the Can-Am front runners (Most notably McLaren) were using aluminum big blocks, some well in excess of 500 cubic inches. In 1972 when Porsche arrived with their hyper-sophisticated twin-turbo flat-12 917-10's GM effectively pulled the plug on any further support of Can-Am teams, and by the time the oil crisis of 1973 came along they were pretty much through with big-block whiz-bang unobtanium engine part development...

 

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=421639



Fire Sticks are an ingenious solution to an age-old problem. Simply strike a knife or any hard object along the Fire Stick. Presto, friction against the steel produces fire-starting sparks.

In seconds, you'll fire up an inferno of hot-burning flame that ignites most wood, kindling and other fuel... even if it's wet! Each stick has enough strikes for hundreds of fire starts!

•Instantly and effortlessly builds a potentially life-saving fire virtually anywhere
•Sparks ignite most fuel in seconds
•Each sparking rod is 4" long
•Created to Military specs.

 

In the late 1980's Porsche used magnesium in their transmission cases. Don't know if they do today. I saw a Porsche with an engine fire that set the tranny on fire also. The tranny created a tremendous amount of light as it burnt. The fire department pumped a lot of water into the engine compartment to put the fire out. Of course, this wasn't that really effective since magnesium, once it starts to burn, will burn quite nicely in water. The fire department deluged the engine compartment so much that they had all but put out the fire due to the cooling effect of the water. They turned off their hoses......boom..the fire immediately started burning with it's original fearsness. This deluge and then turn off cycles repeated itself a few times until the fire went out. All of the mag had burnt out. When they towed the car away, all the road surface had been burnt away.

 

Some of the new Diesel Blocks are CGI (compacted graphite iron) Blocks.
They withstand Huge pressures. But could be overkill for A 400-500HP gas motor ?

 

WOW they sure did, I had one , it was a skylark convertible, The aluminum block wreaked havock with the iron heads, I tried ceramic seal on my heads after they failed and they failed again after a few thousand miles. It was a neat car , just not reliable. I sold it broken for $1500 or so in 1975. It was a smoking deal for the time.

 

Yes 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet produced a few aluminum blocks and heads. They were prototypes/experimental I seen two heads with Mickey Thompson stamped into them. I think Jack Podell had them.
Since the discussion went off the track a little here I had a friend in the early 70"s that bought a 1967 GTO that was came from the factory with an all aluminum 428, 4speed, 4.33 rear gear. It had the functional Ram Air hood scoop. It was 1 of 2 that were made. This car was a prototype drag race car that was "Sluethed" out the back door by John Delorean for a drag race team. My friend ended up panic downshifting it at over 130 MPH spun it around 180 degrees and smashed the back of it into a trailer that was the rear trailer of 3 loaded with corn pulled by a tractor with no rear facing lights at night. Pushed the rear bumper almost to the back of the front seats and walked away from it. The car ended up going to the crusher. Wonder what that one would be worth today.

 

Hahaa..those were the days my friend....

 

When we had hot brakes on a fighter jet, and the wheels started burning, they became like a grenade going off. Only 2 things would work - foam or Halon, preferably both.

 

I was under the impression that early 911 engine cases were magnesium as well, up to the 2.7L. Once they went to 3.0 they had new castings in aluminum.

 

Yes they were. I graduated in 1975, My HS parking lot looked like a muscle car car show would today. I had a 67 Camaro RS, My 4 best friends had a 1970 Road Runner 440 Magnum 4 speed, A 66 4 speed tripower GTO, a 70 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed (402) and a 57 Chevy with a straight axle and a 327 4 speed. I bought the Camaro for $800. Those were the days.

 

75 was my year too i had. a 67 442 convertible with the ram air motor 4 speed and a bench seat. 3 years later i had a 68 l-88 everyone thought i was insane to pay 7 k for it. what was insane was selling it

 

Yup. Magnesium can even be welded using TIG.

 

I'll give this a bump for further discussion................

 

GM sold an aluminum 350 block for many yrs you could order it from their GMPP catalog. Almost bought one in the late 90s...machinist didnt think it was suitable for a street motor though.

C4 ZF6 bellhousings are all magnesium I believe.

 

Some old VWs had magniseum blocks I believe. I watched the fire department watch one burn years ago. The Fire Chief told me it was magniseum anyway.

 

Machining solid magnesium is a tricky business. You have to keep the part cool and the contact area between tooling and part cannot get hot or cause a spark, or . Once a fire starts on a part being machined, it is almost impossible to put out. So, anyone who thinks solid mag can't catch fire-- they're just talkin'...

The only reason for considering a mag engine block is for strength and weight...both important issues when racing is the business. But, how do you prevent any "hot" conditions or sparks, when a race car wrecks???

Having had some [significant] experience in the field of product reliability, a mag engine block would seem to have a lot of "drawbacks".

 

The Lola T332c CanAm car I once owned had magnesium wheels, and I've still got an old school magnesium BBC injector, but have yet to hear of a magnesium BBC block.

 

I don't know how this guy does it, but I have a set of Magniseum wheels and two of them had small cracks. A guy near Cleveland welded them for me. I have them back and need to machine them for looks. I'm being awful careful with the machining.

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...s-or-more.html